A Week of Decent Training

We're now less than 4 weeks from the Loony Challenge (10K and 5K on Oct 3rd, 10 Mile on Oct 4th). Here's what last week's training numbers looked like:

• MONDAY: easy run.

• TUESDAY: moderate speed long ride. I mentioned 2 weeks ago that I'm using bikes rides of over an hour to help keep my endurance up now that I'm not swimming.

• WEDNESDAY: short ride to-and-from the State Fair with my family. As shown in my last post.

• THURSDAY: 3x1 mile intervals at the track! I didn't know if I'd be healthy enough to run intervals before the Loony Challenge, but I gave them a shot last week. My heels had been feeling pretty good for a week, so I was ready for some speed. I'd been doing long runs with some "race pace" miles in the middle of them, so I thought doing a tempo run wouldn't be that helpful because a tempo run would just barely be faster than those race pace miles in the middle of my long runs. I told myself I'd try intervals and stop if my heel felt too tight. I could stop at any moment and be right next to my car, so I wouldn't be running on a sore leg. And the track is (obviously) flat, which is great for heel injuries. So I talked myself into doing it.

Tired, sweaty people at the track. (Nicole in the blue sports bra, and James in white.)

We were doing 4x1 mile repeats with a long (4 mins) rest. From the start, I said I was only doing 3. I ran with Nicole and James (my TC 10 Mile buddy from last year). Those 2 took turns leading and setting the pace, and I stayed right on their butts. Our splits were:

2:45, 2:39 = 5:24
2:45, 2:44 = 5:29
2:44, 2:42 = 5:26

I finished hot and sweaty, so (obviously) I took a selfie:

Yes, I was so hot that my glasses fogged up. And yes, that's a tiger with a
Gatorade bottle on its head behind me. Minneapolis is a strange place.


I Instagrammed this: "Humid 3x1600 this morning. This is my swass print where I stretched post-workout."

BFFFN Devon Palmer left a flattering series of hashtags on that photo on Instagram: #fastdad #dadswhofinishfast #quickdad #sweatydad #fitdad #dadswhokeepittight

• FRIDAY: 100% easy ride, no Garmin or computer! I glanced at my watch so I had I rough estimate of time, but that was it. It was a no-pressure ride to just loosen up the legs after intervals. I also caught a photo of my wife coming home from work on her bike:

She's been doing that a lot lately: in one 2-week stretch, she used her car 2 times.

• SATURDAY: long run (8.25 miles) with the middle 4 at race pace. It was hot and humid on Saturday. For my 7 mile long run the week before, I did 4 miles at race pace in the middle, but I didn't want to go 5 this week because of the stress of intervals just 2 days before. (Again, my #1 goal is to stay injury-free, and #2 is to build distance.) My 4 "race pace" miles were 6:15, 6:21, 6:10, and 6:09, which was 6:13.8/mile. The week before, they were at 6:20 pace. Oh, and this happened as I was cooling down:

• SUNDAY: easy, short bike ride. Then a good stretch.

The plan for this week is to take 2 days off from running (Sun and Mon) before an easy run on Tuesday. Maybe something harder on Thursday. Then another 2 days off followed by a long run of 9 miles next Sunday. (And fit in some biking and/or trainer time when it fits.) My calf was a little tight yesterday from the stress of the intervals and long run, but it was nothing some foam rolling and a night in the "night splint" couldn't handle.